Racing Engineering’s Javier Villa celebrated his firstvictory in the Spanish Formula 3 championship at theValencia circuit this weekend. After already finishing thefirst race in second position, and also recording thefastest lap time in the second race, Javier scoredimportant points for the championship.
Race 1:Javier Villa started the race from pole position, but lost it at thestart to Alvaro Barba. However, the Racing Engineering driverkept on pushing throughout the 16 lap race and crossed thefinish line only 0.746 of a second behind the winner.Ricardo Risatti started the race in 8th position and overtook histeammate Albuquerque at the start. During the rest of the raceRicardo stayed in 7th position, although he once again foundhimself with brake problems.
Filipe Albuquerque, who suffered the entire weekend from fuelpressure problems on his car, started the race in 7th position.After yesterday’s qualifying session, the Racing Engineeringcrew changed the injection system on Filipe’s car, but againthe problem appeared and the Portuguese’ car stopped duringthe last lap. Filipe, at that time running in 8th position, wasclassified 17th
Marcos Martinez Ucha, racing in the B category, had anamazing start overtaking everyone for the lead in his category.But Marcos’ options for a top position were demolished by anovereager Marco Barba, who crashed into the rear of Marcos’car in lap 1. The Racing Engineering driver had to enter thepits to pick up a new rear wing assembly and lost a lot of timedue to this unnecessary incident. Marcos rejoined the race butcouldn’t race the required amount of laps to be classified.
Race 2:Javier Villa, now starting from in 2nd position on the grid, had agood start, allowing him to stay in that position. Quickly itbecame apparent that Javier was faster than Alvaro Barba,who was in front of him. In lap 8 Javier made a braveovertaking maneuver and took over the lead of the race.Increasing the gap with Barba to 4 seconds in only 3 laps, theRacing Engineering driver reduced his speed and celebratedhis first victory in the Spanish Formula 3 Championship.Ricardo Risatti started in 7th position and made up oneposition at the start and two more during the first lap. Ricardowas 5th until lap 11 when Soucek had to abandon the race dueto a fire. Ricardo finished the race in 4th position.Filipe Albuquerque had to start the race from the pit lane andmoved up the classification in a tremendous way. Joining therace in 21st position, the Portuguese was already in 11thposition by the 8th lap. During the remaining 7 laps Filipemade up another 3 positions and finished the race 8th.However, after the race, Filipe received a 25 secondpenalization. When overtaking Soto, a Spaniard racing his firstrace in single seaters, Filipe touched his opponent’s car, whoas a result spun off the track. Filipe therefore is classified as13th.
Marcos Martinez Ucha, starting from the 3rd position in hiscategory, could keep this position at the start and foughtthroughout the entire race to improve. Marcos effort wasrewarded with the second position in race two.
After Sunday’s races Javier Villa declared, “I am really happy.I had a bad start in race one from pole position, but even withan oversteering car I could keep up with the winner. Thesecond race went really well. I was faster than Barba andovertook him in lap 8. When I saw that within three laps Icould increase the distance to almost 4 seconds, I was drivingquite relaxed for the rest of the race. I would like to thank myengineer and team for the car they prepared for me. Theyhave given me the opportunity to win my first race in theSpanish Formula 3 championship!”
Marcos Martinez, who finished on the podium in race two,remarked, “I had a very good start in the first race and wasrunning 1st when all of the sudden Marco Barba crashed intomy car from behind. I lost time in the pits and all chances toget a podium. In the second race I had another good start andthen tried to keep my position throughout the race. It was atough race and I was fighting permanently. I am happy to getthis second position”.
Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon said, “I am happy for Javier. He isa very good driver and with what I have seen today I amconvinced one with a great future. On the other hand Ricardoas well as Filipe had to fight against technical problems duringthis weekend. On Filipe’s car we changed the gasoline pumpvarious times during the weekend and the problem stilloccurred, which is not normal. We have a lot of work to doduring the next weeks to overcome these problems. Marcoshas worked hard during this weekend and this was rewardedin the second race. It’s a pity what happened to him during thefirst race. This accidents cost him a possible win”.
